Benedict Cumberbatch is aboard to play Leaks founder Julian Assange, a man who went from freedom of information hero to governmental menace in a short space of time thanks to the release of diplomatic messages and other confidential information.

Bruhl is replacing McAvoy (who had been in negotiations, but had to drop out due to filming commitments on X-Men: Days Of Future Past) as Daniel Domscheit-Berg, who was a German tech activist and Assange’s right-hand man. Though he was initially a crucial part of the WikiLeaks team – and served as the organization’s spokesman – he split with Assange and wrote a book about his experiences.

DreamWorks has the rights to his tome, called Inside WikiLeaks: My Time With Julian Assange At The World’s Most Dangerous Website, as well as another book on the subject, David Leigh and Luke Harding’s WikiLeaks: Inside Julian Assange’s War On Secrecy.

Josh Singer has written the script and Condon should be cranking the cameras in January. Bruhl was last spotted in 2 Days In New York and will be seen in 2013 in both Ron Howard’s Rush and Anton Corbijn’s A Most Wanted Man.